India Service Program Blog

Thursday October 6, 2011
"People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do" Lewis Cass
Another thrilling day at Porur as we reach the end of our workdays this week. We got off to a slow start in the morning as tiredness was beginning to pile up after a few days into our Program. Breakfast helped shake the sleepiness off and prepare to meet the everlasting energy children. They were already waiting for us, for their English lesson and their playtime with the merry volunteers. They were separated into groups once again; Charlotte taught her usual girls group, Eugenio got the littlest ones and Carlos worked with Satish and Isaac. After some time of good and healthy teaching, Sister Metilda called for a break were the children were served tea and was compulsory to finish it. A new boy arrived, who was joining day care, and everyone gathered around him and welcomed him to their home. Eugenio and Carlos played uncountable games with the little children while Charlotte went to a secluded room to keep imparting her teachings to those eager to keep learning. We came back to the house for lunch where the brave ones tried deep fried green chilly, which was very delicious and extremely spicy if you aren't either Indian or Mexican. The volunteers left to SEAM, and upon our arrival Raja told us that it was the wedding anniversary of the caretaker of the children's home and family guests where there to congratulate her. We met her family, a couple of very well English spoken girls and a young adult who where very kind to us. Charlotte taught her star student, John, who was making great progress and a somewhat difficult Kumar. Carlos and Eugenio worked with two of the older boys and they went on to their sporting activities, before daylight went away, there was the habitual cricket and afterwards they played kabadi, which is an Indian duel where one faces all. The mexicana were playfully tested and passed.

In the late evening, we went for dinner at a nice local restaurant instead of the House which was a nice routine change up. We had an interesting discussion on religion while little Roshan devoured his chicken lollypops. Raja and Carlos walked back home while the others took Stephens Tata.

We add another great day to our program in Chennai, and our expectations grow higher every day as we wait for the next one.

Carlos

Wednesday October 5, 2011

“Nine-tenths of education is encouragement”. - Anatole France

Following breakfast, Carlos read Monday’s journal before we went to Assisi Illam for the morning.  Sheeba and Roshan joined us today at both facilities.  Roshan really is in his glory with so many small children to play with.  When we arrived, the children were drinking their morning nutritious beverage.  Then the children were divided into groups.  Charlotte had a small group – she helped the children with their reading, vocabulary and pronunciation.  Carlos and G. each had larger groups.  They played games, read and shared word books, and rough-housed with the children – they enjoy the energy of the young people so much. 

We went back to the Guest House for lunch and an afternoon of rest and relaxation.  About 4:40 PM, we are off to the SEAM facility.  On the way, Carlos purchased some balls and cricket bats for the children.  Again the children were very glad to see us.  They were especially excited about the new balls and bats.  Carlos and G. played ball with the children for awhile before they settled down to sharing word books. 

We returned to the Guest House for a good meal and conversation.  Stephen and Sheeba explained the caste system in India to us and some of the related history.  India has seen so many changes in the past fifty plus years.

Charlotte Mc

Tuesday October 4, 2011

“it’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are” - Roy Disney

Today we gathered for breakfast in the morning, and Charlotte wasn't feeling very good because of the malaria medication, she decided it would be best to take the morning off so that she could feel better in the afternoon. The activities were very similar to the day before, but at the same time everything is different we went to the Asssi Illam Day Care center and found out that most of the children went to the hospital to get their identification card for the government. But with the children that were there we went throw a picture dictionary and a couple of short story books. We started playing, drawing, and making paper air plains. After a while Carlos and Eugenio where exhausted and the kids with rechargeable batteries had plenty of energy left. We left before they had launch and headed back home. The team met again for lunch and Charlotte was filling much better, we had lunch and look a nap to be ready for the South East Asia Mission children's home. We left at 4:30 and they were all ready expecting us.

Charlotte taught English to some very dedicated students, that were much more advance then what she thought, but that didn't stop her of doing a great job. Carlos and Eugenio played a cricket game with a lot of excitement. The kids are very good. After a very long day we returned to the guest house, exhausted but happy about our day, looking forward to go back tomorrow

Eugenio

Monday October 3, 2011
"The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring." - Oscar Wilde
We woke up to a cloudy morning but with a high temperature nevertheless. We had a small breakfast and were told the schedule for the day; in the morning, we were going to visit for the first time Assisimi Illam Day Care center, and after lunch we were going to the South East Asia Mission children's home for our second time. Raja's younger brother Stephen, gave us a lift in his Tata to the day care center. As soon as we arrived, the children rushed to greet us with a massive and beautiful smile stamped on their face. Most of the children were still quite young, most of them aging from 5 to 9 years. All of them were orphans, as the semi-orphans were away. We sat down and they introduced themselves, some better than others but all of them making a huge effort. Sister Rose introduced herself and gave us a short briefing regarding the day care center. Raja and her separated the children in three groups so that each volunteer would have his own group accordingly. We brought some books with pictures and basic words, they were very excited and with two children on our lap, one climbing on our back peeking over our shoulder and a last one trying to flip the pages we managed to teach them a little bit. After a little while, given their age and their short attention span, they lost interest in the books and engaged in running, jumping around and tugging two Mexican volunteers around. Charlotte, on the other hand, had a quiet and attentive circle of girls around her, listening to her wise words as she went through the books. During this time, Sister Metilda also introduced herself and welcomed us there. After a tiring two hours with the benevolent and radiantly happy children, we came back to the guest house for lunch. After satisfying our hungry stomachs and our appetites had vanished, we headed towards SEAM where we had been the previous day. The children were quick to say hello as we got there, we greeted them and got ready to teach. Charlotte, Eugenio and Carlos worked separately, each with one child or rather, student. We taught them some new words, basic spelling, sums, subtractions, went through some Dr.Seuss' books and read them a couple of stories. There was some sort of cricket game, with the principles of the game applied and distorted to fit their facilities and inventory, before we left. The children waved us goodbye with their faces of eagerness to our return.

It was a long day, tiring but full of joy on both sides. We look forward to our next day and meeting the little youngsters again, who are so in need of love and we should be there to provide it for them.

Carlos

Sunday October 2, 2011

“Travel teaches tolerance”

Vanakkam -

Following breakfast, Stephen led an Orientation Meeting.  Each of us introduced ourselves.  Stephen explained how he became involved with Global Volunteers, then each of us gave a brief bio.   Both Carlos and G. are recent high school graduates from Mexico.  They just finished a stint as Global Volunteers in Tanzania a couple of weeks ago.  Carlos plans to go to China next month and work with Global Volunteers there.  Charlotte has had a couple of volunteer experiences in the past with Global Volunteers - one in China and one in Italy.

The various Global Volunteer Projects in the Chennai area were reviewed and a general idea of a schedule.  Since we are a small group of only three, we will only be spending time at three of the facilities – namely Assisi Illam, Grace Nursery and Primary School, and SEAM.  Although we will be visiting the  SEAM Children’s Home late Sunday afternoon, we go to Assisi Illam in the mornings.  The daily schedule was reviewed and possible free time activities were discussed.   As a group we developed a list of characteristics of an effective team – namely, share ourselves, learn as much as we can from the volunteer experience, enjoy and be happy during our volunteer experience.  The Policies, Guidelines, and Philosophy of Global Volunteers were outlined.  We were briefed on the 12 Essential Package of the United Nations and how the Global Volunteer organization  is working with the United Nations and the individual Chennai projects to achieve  the goals of the UN – basically to improve the nutrition, education and health of some of the world’s disadvantaged. Stephen also talked about the specific projects in Chennai that the Global Volunteers Organization had accomplished over the past eleven years. 

After lunch and an afternoon rest/break, we all walked over to the SEAM facility.  The children were very glad to see us.  We each introduced ourselves to the children.  They sat on the floor in a very orderly fashion.  The children then welcomed us by singing two songs with great gusto.  Carlos, G. and Charlotte sat in the front of the room and the children came up in turn and introduced themselves to us – their name, age and class.  Charlotte was given a tour of the girls’ rooms and Carlos and G. toured the boys’ rooms.  We all spent some time together outside with the children before we left to enjoy a delicious meal at an Indian restaurant in the neighborhood. 

Charlotte